UK was not looking to find someone to immediately start working as a public address announcer at games. The school has seven announcers who work games, most prominently Carl Nathe in football and Patrick Whitmer in basketball.

The tryouts were intended to “deepen our roster,” said Guy Ramsey, director of strategic communication for UK Athletics. A newcomer that showed sufficient promise would then learn from the veterans and someday work games.

Don Hart, the P.A. announcer for women’s basketball and volleyball, has a signature call in the latter sport. In a call-and-response with the crowd, he announces “point, Kentucky!” The crowd then responds with “Wildcats!”

“You’re a performer,” said Hart, who works as a financial adviser when he’s not performing.

Hart, who also supplied feedback to Herbert, said there is a National Association of Sports Public Address Announcers. He took special delight in noting that its founder was the aptly named Brad Rumble.

Link, who studied broadcast journalism at UK and in 2011 was a finalist for the job of P.A. announcer at Wrigley Field, offered advice.

“Don’t try to be somebody else who is famous if you can’t do it better,” he said. “It’s like you’re copying somebody else’s style. You don’t need to be a copy cat (no pun intended).”

A Kentucky twang would not be disqualifying, Herbert said. “If it fits,” he said. “I don’t think an accent is a bad thing.”

Meck brought a wealth of announcing experience to the tryout. Besides being the weatherman at Channel 18, he was the P.A. announcer for the Man o’ War swim conference championship meet for 14 years. He also announced at Lexington Catholic soccer games for four years.

He eschewed the goooooooal call.

“It’s a cliché,” he said. “It’s somebody else’s bit.”

Herbert did not expect to name who would advance from the tryouts to deepen UK’s roster of public address announcers until Monday.

When asked why UK needed several days to make those decisions, someone quipped, “Background checks.”

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